From Welsh 'Warrenball' to England's double-sided attacks, the former British
& Irish Lions coach delivers his guide to the tactics on show in this year's
competition

Wales have ball carriers right across the field. They have them in the front row with hooker Richard Hibbard especially prominent there, in the second row where Jake Ball and Alun Wyn Jones can both carry even if it is not the strongest part of their games and in the back row where Toby Faletau can do it, and even sometimes Sam Warburton.

Their back line is huge, with both centres, Roberts and Davies, and both wingers, North and Cuthbert, all very powerful carriers.

What this means is that every second pass is going to a big man and a strong runner. They will accelerate the breakdowns, ensure that the speed of the ball from each ruck gets quicker and quicker so that off-loads then come naturally.

Critics call it ‘Warrenball’ but I have always thought that harsh, especially as many of the players involved, especially Roberts, are a lot more skillful and intelligent than they are given credit for.

The way to stop it is to disrupt the plan as close to the set-piece as you can. So if you can disrupt the line out or scrummage then you put pressure on the half-backs so that they cannot set up the runners as they would like.

But once the half-backs have time and space then they can bring those runners onto the ball at pace.

Once Wales get momentum into their game, then they are highly dangerous.

I think Warren Gatland realised last summer in South Africa that he had to change Wales’ set up slightly, and especially in the second Test that they should have won out there, it was obvious that they were trying to get at the defensive line much more quickly.

You get that quick ruck ball and it gives the runners the space where they can play off each other.

“Two-sided attacks” is the terminology that you may have heard about England, and they are what the team is striving to use. They want George Ford and Mike Brown as their first receivers, as distributors and kickers, either side of a breakdown.

The kicking element is important and is much more easily done now that Brown can kick much more effectively than he could a couple of years ago. There was an excellent example of this last autumn against Australia when he kicked to the corner and Australia could not escape, with England scoring through Ben Morgan.

England like to kick to compete and it was not something they did well in the first two matches last autumn. But it improved during the campaign and can be a potent weapon now, because their wingers, Jonny May and Anthony Watson, have worked hard on their kick chase, too. They like to put pressure on the back three and then England will have a real go at teams with their pick-and-drives either side of the rucks.

At scrum half, Ben Youngs is also very good at playing forwards off him, making good yards on the fringes.

Fly half Jonathan Sexton was such a huge part of Ireland's effective game plans during their victories over South Africa and Australia last autumn that it will be interesting to see how they cope without him at the start of the tournament.

Like England, they want their kicks to be contestable or they go through a couple of phases and then put a kick behind the opposition winger so that someone like Tommy Bowe is racing onto it.

Bowe is a strike runner but he is so good at chasing kicks and retrieving possession, as is full back Rob Kearney. They are quality players under the high ball, and Ireland use them to regain the ball and put teams on the back foot.

Scrum-half Conor Murray is a bit like Ben Youngs in being able to bring forwards off him, with tight-five players taking tight angles off him, doing that two or three times before putting a kick in. They also have some strong carriers in Jamie Heaslip and Peter O’Mahony, whom they can use.

Leinster under Joe Schmidt played a lot of attractive, passing rugby, but Schmidt knows that Test rugby is very different and much tighter, so Ireland under him have been very aware of gaining territory and of relieving pressure.

Scotland have freed up the way they play under new coach Vern Cotter. They will try to hold their own at the set piece and then try to use their backs to get over the gain line. They will then want their back-five forwards in the game quickly, because they are very mobile.

I thought they did that very well in the autumn Tests, mixing backs and forwards in attack, with both performing carrying and support roles. It did not matter what number the player had on his back, there was always someone who was quick in as a ball carrier and looking for an off-load, having got in behind the opposition.

They will want to do that rather than have a lot of set patterns. They will want to move the ball before anything else, building a tempo naturally so that they can work in little groups of three or four players.

So they will look to get over the gain line doing that and then have forwards running off their scrum-half and fly-half, often against the flow. They might get to a touchline, come back infield and then go back out towards the short side again.

It is a different style from that which Cotter used at Clermont. There he had a strong mauling game from his forwards, but he also used to bring in his big forward carriers off his backs.